(19)
(11) EP 4 421 732 A3

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88) Date of publication A3:
27.11.2024 Bulletin 2024/48

(43) Date of publication A2:
28.08.2024 Bulletin 2024/35

(21) Application number: 24155616.6

(22) Date of filing: 02.02.2024
(51) International Patent Classification (IPC): 
G06T 7/00(2017.01)
(52) Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC):
G06T 7/0004; G06T 2207/20081; G06T 2207/20084; G06T 2207/30164; G01N 21/8851; G01N 21/9515; G01N 2021/8887; G06F 18/2135; G01N 2021/8861; G06T 7/001
(84) Designated Contracting States:
AL AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC ME MK MT NL NO PL PT RO RS SE SI SK SM TR
Designated Extension States:
BA
Designated Validation States:
GE KH MA MD TN

(30) Priority: 03.02.2023 US 202318105299

(71) Applicant: RTX Corporation
Farmington, CT 06032 (US)

(72) Inventors:
  • LEE, Jeremiah C.
    Coventry, 06118 (US)
  • ATTRIDGE, Paul
    Colchester, 06108 (US)
  • CHAUDHRY, Zaffir A.
    South Glastonbury, 06073 (US)
  • GOYETTE, Scott
    Moosup, 06354 (US)
  • HAGEN, Gregory S.
    Glastonbury, 06033 (US)
  • LINCOLN, David L.
    Cromwell, 06416 (US)
  • LORE, Kin Gwn
    Belmont, 02478 (US)

(74) Representative: Dehns 
10 Old Bailey
London EC4M 7NG
London EC4M 7NG (GB)

   


(54) UTILIZATION OF IMAGE ANALYTICS TO DETECT ABNORMALITIES ON FAN BLADES OF GAS TURBINE ENGINES


(57) Methods of inspecting fan blades (70) of a gas turbine engine (20) for abnormalities are disclosed. One method utilizes a neural network (108) to determine whether a photographic image (114) of at least one fan blade (70) depicts an abnormality of the at least one fan blade (70). Another method uses a dimensional reduction technique on one or more first photographic images (110) that depict at least one first fan blade (70) to obtain basis vectors, utilizes the basis vectors to obtain a reconstructed version of a second photographic image (114) that depicts at least one second fan blade (70), and determines whether the at least one second fan blade (70) includes an abnormality based on a difference between the second photographic image (114) and the reconstructed version of the second photographic image (114). Another method determines whether a fan blade (70) includes an abnormality based on contrast differences between adjacent areas of an image.







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Search report